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Show HN: I made a privacy-first minimalist Google Analytics

simpleanalytics.io

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Re: Show HN: I made a privacy-first minimalist Google Analytics

#211

Post by kposehn »

AdriaanvRossum wrote: post #2

Creator here. As a developer, I install analytics for clients, but I never feel comfortable installing Google Analytics because Google creates profiles for their visitors, and uses their information for apps (like AdWords). As we all know, big corporations unnecessarily track users without their consent. I want to change that. So I built Simple Analytics. To ensure that it's fast, secure, and stable, I built it entir…

Thanks for making something simple and elegant.

Main question: How are you handling Safari Intelligent Tracking Protection 2.0?

Re: Show HN: I made a privacy-first minimalist Google Analytics

#212

Post by Jmcdd »

curun1r wrote: post #121
nickdandakis wrote: post #89

To everyone complaining about the price point for this service. You are part of The Problem. This is a solo dev's venture, that has a relatively pure and straightforward goal. If you can't afford it, don't use it and pick one of the others. Do NOT compare this with a B2C offering that has nothing to do with analytics. Do NOT compare this with a B2B offering that's free and feeds your user's data into the parent corpo…

Heh...I had the opposite reaction to the price. As someone building something in the analytics space, $12/mo seems so low that it won't get traction beyond the hobbyist demographic. If you want to sell to business, the price point needs to be at least $200/mo. Plus, I have zero confidence that someone using a naive postgres implementation can scale an analytics backend with customers paying only $12/mo unless all tho…

It's an MVP right? Nothing stopping him from changing the model in the future

Re: Show HN: I made a privacy-first minimalist Google Analytics

#213

Post by harianus »

eli wrote: post #92

I think there are a lot of misconceptions about how Google Analytics tracking works. I'm pretty sure a vanilla GA setup does not, in fact, create profiles that track you across the web. For one thing, all the cookies it creates are first-party (on your domain). I still get objecting to Google products on principle, but their privacy policy for GA seems pretty reasonable to me: https://support.google.com/analytics/ans…

Also read this: https://simpleanalytics.io/no-tracking, they state something about it in their policy.

Re: Show HN: I made a privacy-first minimalist Google Analytics

#214

Post by ucarion »

boernard wrote: post #157
ucarion wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First off: hats off for making a product that takes the rights of the end user seriously! However, I am a bit confused as to who would want this product. The sort of questions this product answers seem quite limited: 1. What URLs are getting lots of hits? 2. What referrers are generating lots of hits? 3. What screen sizes are those hits coming from? What decisions can be drawn from those questions? This seems useful…

Since the creator points out that he doesn't store any IP addresses, he doesn't store any data that allows identifying an individual. For the GDPR to be applicable you need to store data that allows you to identify an individual. Thus when you use this, you don't have to think about GDPR.

I'm not so sure. By putting this service's code on your website, you transmit personal data (IP addresses) to this third party. That appears to make the GDPR applicable here? Transmission is considered "data processing" under the GDPR.

Really, the central point that should be clear is that this is a question for lawyers. The GDPR is incredibly far-reaching.

Re: Show HN: I made a privacy-first minimalist Google Analytics

#215

Post by ecnahc515 »

LyndsySimon wrote: post #109
sleepyhead wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think that is relevant. What matters is that it is transferred to a third-party. And regardless if it is stored in a database, the servers are still processing the data (and maybe storing the log of it).

How would you do analytics without the IP address being "transferred to a third party"? Outside of self-hosting, either the user's browser is going to be making a request to the analytics provider (and therefore exposes their IP), or you're going to have to have some sort of proxy mechanism on the site's server that strips that information and sends it from there. Am I missing something?

It's exactly as you state. This is the problem. The IP address needs to be stripped before storing or sending to anyone else, or it's still something you need to consider as personal data. This matters for GDPR. So in effect, this service still has to adhere to GDPR, because it is in fact receiving IP addresses, regardless of them getting stored or not.

Re: Show HN: I made a privacy-first minimalist Google Analytics

#216

Post by ryanwaggoner »

dwild wrote: post #70
danielbln wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could argue that if it is very early stage, then it's maybe not the right time to charge $12/month.

Or maybe it's the right time to charge $12/month? Usually too early you don't want many low paying customer which would imply too much support while you iterate quickly. A low number of high paying customer is much better. It's also easier to lower the cost later than increasing it. It's hard early on to find the right price point. If he doesn't sale as much as he want, he will adapt.

$12 / month is a low-paying customer. An ultra low paying customer. You can only offer minimal support at that price point.

Also, it’s easier to raise prices than to lower them. If you lower prices, you need to do it for your current users too or they’ll complain. If you raise prices, you can grandfather people in AND it can be used to incentivize people to buy before the price goes up.

Re: Show HN: I made a privacy-first minimalist Google Analytics

#217

Post by jackgolding »

Hi I work in digital analytics and have a question. A problem with Piwik is if that PSQL database goes down (a database is NEVER 100% up) what happens to the data your JavaScript snippet is sending?

Will also add a lot of comments here are very unfair I hope you take them with a grain of salt.

Re: Show HN: I made a privacy-first minimalist Google Analytics

#218

Post by Aeolun »

ucarion wrote: post #214
boernard wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since the creator points out that he doesn't store any IP addresses, he doesn't store any data that allows identifying an individual. For the GDPR to be applicable you need to store data that allows you to identify an individual. Thus when you use this, you don't have to think about GDPR.

I'm not so sure. By putting this service's code on your website, you transmit personal data (IP addresses) to this third party. That appears to make the GDPR applicable here? Transmission is considered "data processing" under the GDPR. Really, the central point that should be clear is that this is a question for lawyers. The GDPR is incredibly far-reaching.

I mean, sure GDRP applies, but little of it’s provisions apply to storing no PII at all.

If it means your website has to show a message ‘We transmit your info, but save nothing.’ It becomes a bit weird.

Re: Show HN: I made a privacy-first minimalist Google Analytics

#219

Post by LyndsySimon »

dzader wrote: post #202
wolco wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that really a question? Google creates global profiles of everyone for tracking and advertising. Having a random developer create a shadow profile isn't the same. The scale is vastly different and can be used to track you from site to site.

I know Google creates global profiles for tracking - and my question (which is the same as my original question) is why do you care? If that data is only used internally by google to serve you better ads why are you concerned with them having your data?

In short, because they’re doing so without my permission, and I resent that.

Re: Show HN: I made a privacy-first minimalist Google Analytics

#220

Post by tagawa »

dzader wrote: post #202
wolco wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that really a question? Google creates global profiles of everyone for tracking and advertising. Having a random developer create a shadow profile isn't the same. The scale is vastly different and can be used to track you from site to site.

I know Google creates global profiles for tracking - and my question (which is the same as my original question) is why do you care? If that data is only used internally by google to serve you better ads why are you concerned with them having your data?

Even if a user trusts Google, because the data is digital and therefore permanent, there's no guarantee it will remain internal forever, whether that's because of a hack, a rogue employee, police/government pressure, or a change of ownership.
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